


Fake It 'Til You Make It

by bmcbapej



Series: Bemily Week (2018) [1]
Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Bemily Week, Day 1, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 03:00:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13941165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bmcbapej/pseuds/bmcbapej
Summary: It takes years for Beca and Emily to properly question why they’re so good at making other people believe they’re dating.





	Fake It 'Til You Make It

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! As you can see I haven't disappeared haha. I'm still working on my other fics but took a hiatus since I've sort of been in a Bad Place funk for the past couple of weeks. Trying to get back into the swing of writing but I'm not sure if I'll have time to do all the prompts for bemily week. I'm excited to give it a shot though.
> 
> Day 1: Fake Dating

The first time someone believes they're dating is during one of their bi-weekly morning coffee meetups at ‘ _Beans Beans Beans_ ’. It starts off as usual, with each of them making a face at the other’s regular coffee order. Beca thinks Emily should stop ordering what she dubs ‘diabetes-in-a-cup’ while Emily thinks Beca should try something that isn’t ‘death-in-liquid-form’. Emily had always thought that black coffee was the worst tasting thing in existence up until Beca had offered her a sip of whatever that concoction was. How do you make coffee blacker than black coffee? It should be called, like, black-hole coffee or something. Yuck.

They’re served by the same elderly woman, Margaret, every time. She’s nice and sometimes offers them free cookies (Beca always gestures for her to give them to Emily instead, but Emily knows they’ll both end up sharing them anyway). When Emily goes to collect their orders (it’s busy so Beca is holding a table for the both of them) the old woman gives her a knowing smile and says, “It’s nice that you girls always make time to go on your little coffee dates. Oh, to be young and in love again.”

Emily’s a little surprised at the presumption. She might be perceived as naturally friendly and touchy, but Beca wasn’t – especially if you met her _before_ she was caffeinated. Beca was usually downright grumpy in the morning and she has no idea what about them would even give the woman the idea that there was anything romantic about their friendship. Before Emily can clarify their status as platonic friends, the woman goes on to tell her all about her late husband who she used to share the café with. Emily doesn’t have the heart to say anything after that.

Beca reaction is expectedly incredulous when Emily says they need to pretend to be girlfriends in front of Margaret from now on. She caves quickly though, Emily is very persuasive after all (she also may or may not have been holding the coffee hostage).

It turns out to be an easy enough charade to keep up. They’re still their normal selves and all they really change is adding a few pet names when ordering and holding hands when they enter the café. Neither of them comments on the fact that these things eventually bleed into their everyday lives. After all, holding hands makes it so much easier for Emily to keep track of a short person like Beca.

* * *

 

The second time it happens is during a ‘double-date’ on Valentine’s Day with Chloe and Stacie. The four of them were all single and Chloe had insisted they all spend ‘Galentine’s Day’ with each other at one of the new restaurants that had just opened up across town. As Beca finished parking the car, Stacie excitedly pointed out a promotional sandwich-board outside of the establishment. ‘Two-for-One Couples Meals!’ was written in large chalk writing and little stick figure couples of all genders decorated the bottom.

Beca sighs a little in trepidation but knows a losing fight when she sees one. Besides, her internship doesn’t exactly pay well (read: not at all) and she _could_ use a cheap meal right now. She misses the way Stacie’s eyebrows lift a little when Emily cuts in front of Chloe in order to hold her hand.

They’re lucky enough to get the last vacant table-for-four and Chloe (who is excited to finally put that one drama unit she took her freshman year to good use) decides it’d look more authentic if everyone ordered for their respective dates. Beca narrows her eyes at the plethora of options in front of her. She would have trouble enough deciding on a meal for herself but now she has to consider someone else? Remembering something Emily had said last week, she zeroes in on a dish that fit perfectly as well as a backup option in case it wasn’t available. Putting her menu down, she notices that Emily is the only one that’s ready.

They make small talk until a blonde waitress eventually comes over to take their order. Stacie hesitantly goes first and Beca tries not to laugh when she orders the smoked salmon. Chloe _hated_ smoked salmon and it was something she would mention every time she went to eat sushi with Beca. Chloe goes next and tentatively orders the beef brisket and judging by the way Stacie’s face tightened, it was also not a good choice.

Emily goes third and her choice surprises Beca. She’s not a picky eater and would probably be okay with most of the dishes available, but Emily orders the Middle Eastern chicken salad – an option she hadn’t even noticed but was _very_ pleased with once she had read the full description.

Beca orders last and decides on the pulled pork tortillas after clarifying that none of the ingredients had been anywhere near sesames (Emily was allergic, not fatally, but Beca sure as hell wasn’t going to poison her). She’s satisfied to note that Emily was beaming at her choice.

“Since when do you eat salad, Mitchell?”, “You have an allergy?!” came Stacie and Chloe’s responses respectively as soon as the waitress left.

“Shut up, I can eat things that aren’t pizza.”

“It’s not serious, I just break out into a rash if I have it sometimes.”

Whatever Stacie wanted to respond with never happened as Chloe began to freak out. Chloe was what the Bellas liked to call ‘the mom friend’ and the fact that she had been “the only one” unaware of Emily’s allergy was “a disaster” (honestly Beca and Stacie were probably the only ones in the house to have noticed). They spent the next five minutes calming her down before diverting the conversation to their upcoming Bellas performance.

When their meals arrive, it soon becomes apparent why Chloe barely passed that drama unit. Everyone can obviously tell she hates the meal. Stacie doesn’t fare much better and Beca almost feels sorry for the poor piece of meat being cut so aggressively on the plate. Emily, on the other hand, can’t seem to stop herself from saying, “This is really good, we should come here more often.”

“I’m glad to hear it!” Beca turns around to see the same waitress from before – this time with a telling smile on her lips. They’re about to be caught out and she knows it. “Though maybe next time your friends pretend to be dating they should just order for themselves.” They all freeze. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. You two aren’t the only ones who’ve done that today, I’m 99% sure the ‘couple’ at table 19 are actually brother and sister. It’s good promo for us either way.” She gives them a wink before answering a call from another table.

Chloe and Stacie both enjoy their meals a lot more after swapping with each other and it’s not until later in the evening that Stacie pauses in realisation, “Wait, did she think you two were actually dating?”

* * *

 

The third time it happens is when stupid Josh from her Developmental Psychology class yet again tries to ask Emily out. She’s let him down gently multiple times now and if he doesn’t stop soon she’s going to have to be _mean_ about it _._ It’s an option she doesn’t really want to follow through with, not just because she doesn’t like being mean, but also because she’s his assigned partner for a semester-long project.

“Hey Emily, you want to catch a movie sometime?”

“Not really.” She stands up a littler straighter and crosses her arms in what she hopes is an obvious way of telling him he’s not wanted. She’s seen Beca do it successfully often enough, but she just can’t seem get the facial expression right.

“You sure about that? I can make it worth your while, if you get my drift.” There is absolutely nothing sexy about the smirk he’s currently sending her way. She’s seen sexy smirks before and this was definitely the opposite. And the waggling eyebrows? A huge turn-off.

All the Bellas know about him and she briefly wonders if Lilly’s offer to ‘deal with the problem discretely’ is still on the table. Before she can think of a response, a familiar voice behind her asks, “Hey babe, ready to go?”

She whips around and breaks out into a grin when she confirms that it’s Beca. Josh’s face falters a little before he bluntly asks, “Who the hell are you?”

“Beca, Emily’s girlfriend. Who the hell are you?” And _there’s_ the look that Emily was trying to mimic earlier.

“Josh, Emily’s…uh… Emily’s dev-psych partner.”

“Right, well it was _nice_ to meet you, John, but Emily and I have a date so bye.” Before she knows it, she’s being led away at a pace that must be uncomfortable for Beca’s short legs. Once they’re a few buildings away Beca stops and awkwardly asks, “You did need saving, right?”

“Oh absolutely. Though I’m not sure if this’ll be enough.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s the type of guy that thinks you can still score even with a goalie.” Beca’s facial expression darkens, even the idea of homewrecking was a touchy subject for her.

“Well I guess I’ll just have to pick you up after class more often then.”

* * *

 

The fourth time it happens is during the wedding between Beca’s dad and Sheila in Emily’s junior year. They had been dating for years but had never officially tied the knot. Whilst Beca’s relationship with both her father and his now-wife had improved over the years, the same couldn’t be said for Sheila’s family. She’s tempted to feign a hectic work schedule to avoid the whole occasion (which wouldn’t even be that big of a lie, Pimp Lo’s tracks required so much work it wasn’t even funny) but ultimately caves for her father’s sake.

Emily’s the only person she knows that’s still in Atlanta and is Beca’s obvious choice as a plus one (“I’d rather gnaw off both my arms than sit through the whole ordeal alone.”). It starts off well enough, the food is good and the music is decent if a little old school (also Emily looks cute in that dress). The other guests, however, were as pleasant as Beca had expected (which was not at all).

She’s not sure what’s worse. The _subtle_ looks of pity from her father’s side of the family, or the unsubtle looks of condescension from Sheila’s side of the family. She’s almost certain she saw some old lady literally clutch the pearls around her neck when she caught sight of Beca (to be fair she may or may not have purposefully decided to wear a tuxedo because she knew it would ruffle some feathers).

For the majority of the night, nobody outright says anything (at least not to her face, she does catch Emily giving a few of the other guests an occasional dirty look). It’s not until partway through the dancing portion of the evening and they find themselves alone at the table that Emily decides to say something, “No offense, but your step-family is the _worst_!”

It doesn’t occur to Beca until now that they might have treated Emily differently just through her association with Beca. After all, who could be mean to someone as nice as Emily? She was the type of girl parents would love for their children to bring home. Beca looks at the other girl in concern and asks, “Did they do something to you?”

“It’s just the way they talk about you when you’re not-” Emily lets out a low growl when she catches sight of something behind Beca. Turning around briefly, Beca notices the same pearl-clutching lady from before giving them both a sour look. Rolling her eyes a little, she’s at least relieved that their disdain is reserved for only herself.

“Don’t worry about it. They’ve always been like that for no reason, it’s like I pissed in their champagne or something. Sheila’s cool and that’s really all that matters.”

“It’s still not okay for them to be homophobic a-holes.”

“Homopho- Did they think we- Oh wait, no, stupid question. I came dressed like this so obviously they’d assume.”

“Their loss for being so narrow-minded. That tux makes you, like, the prettiest girl here right now.”

Beca’s face heats up a little as she responds with, “Yeah, well, you obviously haven’t seen the mirror in the bathroom yet.”

“Come on, let’s give them something to _really_ talk about.” Before she knows it, Emily’s dragged her all the way to the middle of the dancefloor. She’s not sure if it’s the alcohol finally hitting her, or the way Emily’s smile reminds her of the sun, but she finds herself starting to enjoy the night.

The videos of them dancing are all a downright mess (they’re both only good at _rehearsed_ synchronised lady-dancing) and they wake up with killer hangovers the next day, but neither of them have any regrets.

* * *

 

The fifth time it happens is after DJ Khaled’s performance. It’s their last night in France and all of the Bellas are still hyped up about being on stage together for one more time. The party is in full swing and Emily catches sight of Beca once again being approached by Theo.

All the girls have been joking about the awkward advances the man has been trying to make towards Beca, but Emily can’t help but wonder why he can’t see that Beca’s clearly not interested in him. It was funny when they thought they wouldn’t see him again after the tour was over, but now that Beca’s agreed to Khaled’s offer that was no longer the case.

Watching as Beca swerved out of an attempted kiss, Emily decides to help her nip this problem in the bud. She owed Beca after the whole Josh incident anyway. She announces her presence with a, “Hey babe, ready to go?” just like Beca had done previously, but with an intimate back-hug for added effect.

After momentarily tensing, Beca eased into the hug and leaned back before replying, “Yeah, I was going to talk to Chloe about something, but she seems a bit distracted right now.” It’s only then that Emily notices Chloe and Chicago passionately making out just a few feet away from them. “I can catch her later.”

“Uh, I’ll just be leaving then?” came Theo response as he wandered off confusedly. It sounded more like a question than a statement and Emily is just a _little_ disappointed that they had already met so she couldn’t mistakenly call him Leo or something.

“Thanks for the save.”

“Just repaying the favour.” Emily idly wondered what shampoo Beca was using, it was a familiar scent she couldn’t put her finger on.

“Does that mean you’re going to stand outside my class every week with a caramel frappe?”

“Of course not, you hate those. I’ll just stand outside your studio every week with a cup of poison.”

It’s not exactly every week (grad school is _intense_ ), but Emily does end up visiting Beca’s studio occasionally (especially during her semester breaks) and makes sure to bring her favourite beverage every single time.

She stops by often enough that Theo eventually arranges for her to be granted a permanent guest pass. He’s stopped making advances towards Beca but he’s still well-intentionally awkward, especially around Emily.

They eventually warm up to each other and the two are now sort-of friends, she’s even accepted his recent friend request on Facebook. So it certainly comes as a surprise when Emily is stopped by an angry-looking Theo one evening. It’s the last thing she needs after the end of another gruelling week of classes (Beca had offered to cheer her up with a weekend collaborative studio session).

“What are _you_ doing here?” Emily blinks in stunned confusion at the harsh greeting.

“Meeting Beca? Why else would I be here?”

“Really, you’re going to show up as if nothing’s happened? Does she even know what you’ve done?” For the life of her Emily can’t recall anything she’s done recently (or ever) that would have infuriated Theo or hurt Beca.

“I myself don’t even know what I’ve done. What’s going on?”

“Beca’s been working her ass off on her upcoming album while the girlfriend she’s been trying to write a love song about is off cavorting with topless guys at the beach!” Emily’s glad that it’s late and there’s no one else around because Theo’s shouting would be causing a scene.

Ignoring the love song comment for now (she was most definitely going to question Beca on that later), Emily focuses on the more pertinent information in Theo’s statement. Honestly, she’s a little hurt that Beca hasn’t mentioned anything about this new girl in her life. It still doesn’t explain why Theo was angry at- _Oh._

“Hey there, I hope you haven’t been waiting long.” It’s a testament to the sound-proofing in the studio that Beca is oblivious to what’s going on. “I hope you’re in the mood for burgers cause the place near my apartment has a new menu that I think you’d really like.”

After taking notice of Theo’s uncharacteristically hostile demeanour, Beca cautiously offers to lock up instead, but he waves her off saying that Emily and Beca needed to talk.

On the car ride towards the restaurant, it doesn’t take long for the two of them to get to the bottom of Theo’s misunderstanding. He had misconstrued social media posts of Emily with some of her male cousins as well as the relationship between the two girls.

“I really don’t know why he still thinks we’re dating. I mean there was that one time you acted in France, but I swear I cleared it up with him later once he realised I wasn’t into him.”

Emily offered a shrug since she didn’t understand it either. “Let’s forget about that for a minute, what’s this about you trying to write a love song?”

Beca grimaces, “‘Trying’ is the keyword there. Can you just write one for me because I’m honestly getting nowhere.”

* * *

 

The sixth and final time it happens is after the release of Beca’s first full-length album. Her music was starting to gain traction with the mainstream public, and her moderately-sized but loyal fanbase was growing by the day. It turned out that Theo was not the only one at the label who was under the impression that Beca and Emily were dating. Everyone else did, including her publicist.

Rumours and photos of them together had surfaced on some trashy paparazzi website and her (soon-to-be-ex) publicist had erroneously confirmed them. Whilst there was nothing particularly damaging about the statement aside from the fact that it was false, it was a big concern for Beca that someone on her team would just take unilateral action on something like this, they were supposed to be helping her for God’s sake.

The label decided it would not be in Beca’s best interests to retract the official statement so soon when she was in the middle of her promotion-cycle. Especially considering the attention she was getting from the LGBTQI+ community. Her sexuality was no secret as it had come up during multiple interviews after she had released her second single (which had included a female love-interest in her music video). The fact that she used no gender-specific pronouns in any of her songs was also something her fans had picked up on from the very beginning.

She’s immensely apologetic about the situation towards Emily who was now having her own privacy invaded by the occasional paparazzi photographer with no better story to follow (“It’s fine, it just means I don’t have to take photos of things myself now.”). While they were initially worried about what was expected of them and how it would affect their friendship (actively pretending to be dating all the time should be a lot different to pretending to be dating for a few hours at a restaurant), it ended up being a lot easier than either of them had anticipated.

They didn’t even have to do a single thing differently; the fans did all the work for them. A casual coffee-run was “a date”, ordering things together online to save shipping costs resulted in “couple-items”, social media posts were full of “hidden love messages” and every single glance in each other’s general direction was dubbed a “passionate gaze”.

When Beca comes home early due to a cancelled schedule, she’s confused to hear the sounds of the Bellas singing. It’s especially weird considering she knows for a fact that half the Bellas were currently on the other side of the country. As she recognizes her own voice in the harmony, she realises that Emily must be playing a recording of their Worlds’ performance. Making a beeline for the guest bedroom that Emily frequently spent her weekends staying in, she finds the girl in bed and watching a video on her laptop.

Beca leans against the door-frame as she asks, “Missing the Bellas? I think Aubrey wanted to organise a big reunion sometime next month.” Emily looks up and gives Beca a hesitant look that she hasn’t seen since their Barden days together - before they had really gotten to know each other. “Everything okay?”

“I want you to watch something.” is all the taller girl has to offer in way of a response. She shuffles over to make room and once the laptop screen is in view, Beca realises that Emily had in fact not been watching a recording of just their Worlds’ performance but some other YouTube video that must have contained it.

She raises an eyebrow questioningly once she sees the video title. ‘ _Bemily Mega-Compilation’._ She’s vaguely aware that their fans know them together under the portmanteau of ‘Bemily’ but is confused as to why Emily would be watching something like this.

Emily moves the timing slider back to the beginning and it opens with one of Beca’s latest songs ‘New Beginnings’. A wave of nostalgia hits as it shows snippets of public videos and social media posts from her final year at Barden. The video continues in a similar vein and chronologically follows every public facet of Beca’s friendship with Emily. The background audio transitions between slow songs she’s recorded or covered, with the occasional Bellas performance and Instagram story audio weaved in.

As the video approaches closer and closer towards the present day, the image quality sharpens and the time gaps between scenes shorten. When they reach the portion of the video that contains mostly candid footage where neither of them are actually aware they’re being filmed, Beca begins to notice a particular expression on her face she didn’t know she was capable of making. It’s a surprisingly soft one that’s a mixture of fondness and some other emotion. It doesn’t take long for her to realise it’s a look that’s only directed towards Emily.

She freezes a little and wonders if Emily’s also noticed it and that’s why she wanted Beca to watch the forty-seven-minute-long compilation. Turning her attention towards the 2D-Emily on the screen she picks up on something new as well. Whilst the younger girl was naturally effervescent, her eyes would shine just a little bit brighter and her mouth would smile just a little bit wider around Beca. The two of them sat and stared silently, even after the short film had finished playing – ending on the most popular song in her album (the one Emily had co-wrote and recorded backing vocals for).

In retrospect she could see why it was so easy for people to believe they were an authentic couple. Beca had never questioned the nature of their friendship because Emily was a Bella. And Bellas were not exactly a bastion of normalcy. Bellas wormed their ways into your heart and then permanently set-up camp in there with all their strange quirks. After all, Chloe still used the shower as a place for conversation, Lilly legitimately believed that leaving a dead bird in your bed was an acceptable get-well-soon gift, and one of Aubrey’s many forms of stress-relief involved nine-yards of fairy-lights, fish plushies and a baseball bat.

Emily is the first to speak, “Your fans are pretty good at editing, aren’t they?”

“I think they’re more our fans than just my fans.”

“Right, well… It can’t just be me that noticed that we looked a bit…”

“Like love-interests in those rom-coms you keep somehow convincing me to watch?”

“Yeah.” The conversation lulls into another silence and the ordinarily quiet hum of the laptop fan sounds monstrously loud. “Umm, do you want to maybe… try going on a date some time? Like, for real?”

Beca looks up to face Emily properly for the first time since sitting down, and sees a blend of nervousness and what she guesses is hope. “Yeah, sure. I- I think I’d really enjoy that.”

And they do. Repeatedly, but nowadays they’re all for real.


End file.
